Let the occupant of the room decide on a fabric.
A headboard for a girl's room can be ultra-feminine, urban-chic, geometric or simple, painted wood. A headboard can reflect a girl's hobbies, movie themes or favorite pets, but much depends on her age and her personal taste. Making a headboard for a girl should begin with a consultation with her about choice of colors, materials and themes. Using a soft, upholstered headboard opens up a world of possibilities and fabrics to choose from. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Decide how high you want your headboard to be. For twin and full-size beds, 4 feet above the mattress is a nice height. It's higher than the average headboard and creates a touch of drama and glamor.
2. Measure the width of your mattress. Your headboard should be slightly wider than the mattress. If you have bulky comforters and a lot of pillows, you may want the headboard to extend a full inch or two wider than the mattress on each side.
3. Write down the height and width dimensions and go to a home improvement store to purchase your plywood. They'll cut the wood to size for you at the store.
4. Visit a fabric store or an upholstery supplier for the fabric, foam and batting. The foam should be the exact dimensions of the headboard, but you can purchase the foam in sections and glue the sections together with spray adhesive (see Resources) if you can't find a foam piece large enough. The fabric and batting should be 12 inches larger than the board all around.
5. Spread out the fabric and place the batting over it. Center the foam on top of the batting and place the plywood headboard on top of the foam. If your fabric has a pattern that needs to be centered, see Tips for suggestions on attaching it to the headboard.
6. Pull the fabric and batting up at one corner over the edge of the board, make a fold, and staple it down. Place one knee on the back of the board as you do this, to hold everything in place. Repeat this on all four corners. Now, pull the fabric and batting between the corners onto the headboard and staple these center sections to the board. Cut off any loose fabric or batting with pinking shears to create a finished edge.
7. Use a stud finder to locate the studs in the wall behind the bed. Choose brackets that are two-part assemblies, with one part sliding into another. Attach the brackets to the wall and put the mating brackets at corresponding locations on the back of your headboard. Slide the headboard into the brackets on the wall and push the bed up to it.
Tags: fabric batting, brackets wall, foam batting, headboard girl, than mattress, wider than, wider than mattress
